March 8, 2007

"...One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

     Two can be as bad as one

     It's the loneliest number since the number one

 

     No is the saddest experience you'll ever know

     Yes, it's the saddest experience you'll ever know

 

     'Cause one is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

     One  is the loneliest number, whoa-oh, worse than two..."

 

 

                -Partial lyrics from the old Three Dog Night

                 hit "One", lyrics by Harry Nilsson

 

To All,

      Can that be the clucking of chickens one hears from the Party in Power these days?

 

None:

     It is a question appropriate for Jeff Foxworthy's companions on Fox's latest game show, " Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader".

 

     After nearly a month in the Congressional Hopper, how many sponsors have signed on to Representative Carolyn McCarthy's (D-NY) greatly expanded version of the Clinton Gun Ban?

 

    Answer- Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

 

     AWOL in this Left Wing Pipe Dream include the Bay Area's Own Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and such past Brady Stalwarts as Rose DeLauro, Jerrold Nadler, and Maxine Waters.

 

     Over in the World's Most Deliberatively Obtuse Body, luminaries such as Charles Schumer, Ted Kennedy, Jack Reed, Hillary Clinton, and even California's own Dianne Feinstein are busier kissing babies and donors that bundle than jumping into a re-enactment of The Great Massacre of 1994.

 

     After all, if the voter is to be given a "chance" (think of the snowball-in-hell variety) of "forgetting" such controversial legislation before the next election, HR 1022 is going to have to be ram-rodded through well before the "mega" primaries in February of 2008.

 

     Is it possible that the Left Wing has lost it's "mojo" when it comes to ramming legislation down the throats of a hoodwinked electorate? Or is it perhaps that the political landscape has changed sufficiently so as to thwart the Left in it's march to make dhimmis of us all? Can it be that, after a simple skirmish with Clan McConnell ("...Run away, it's a trap...there's two of them!!!..."), Congressional Liberals have decided to move on to such "easier" prey as Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and AIPAC? Only time will tell.

 

    But it is clear that it will take all the vigilance and dedication that NRA members are famous for to make sure that Representative McCarthy remains the loneliest critter in the House of Representatives. Stay tuned.

 

Links at:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1022

 

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/03/07/D8NNHKNG3.html

 

 

Praise the Lord, and Pass The Ammunition:

     Jamie Glazov writes at FrontPageMagazine.com about an interview with Charl van Wyck, a missionary who in 1993 defended his congregation with a concealed handgun from a terrorist attack in South Africa.

 

     It seems that certain revolutionaries had decided that they needed to instill fear among the white population during reconciliation negotiations in South Africa. Van Wyck kept a snub-nosed revolver on his person, even while in the sanctuary, and was able to use it to engage the attackers as they fired indiscriminately among the church members. His actions apparently lead to the terrorists cutting their attack short, in a way that lends much to the argument for permitting concealed carry of firearms in venues currently off-limits to the fore-armed.

 

     Glazov notes that while van Wyck makes a passionate case for armed self defense in his book "Shooting Back: The Right and Duty of Self-Defense", he also makes a case for Christian-based forgiveness of his attackers. That he is alive to forgive those who trespassed against him can surely be credited to his reliance upon an authority distinctly higher than what can normally be found in the world's legislatures or courts. Van Wyck's book perhaps may make an appropriate addition to every firearms activist's reference library.

 

Links at:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27261

 

http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Back-Right-Duty-
Self-Defence/dp/0620281200

 

 

Rest In Peace:

     Foxnews.com has released a follow-up article regarding the recent demise of California Fish and Game President Bob Hattoy.

He was 56.

 

     The Los Angeles Times had previously noted in their print edition that Mr. Hattoy had succumbed after a 15 year battle with AIDS and a related case of lymphoma.

 

     While it is certain that one could respectfully disagree with any one of a number of positions advocated by Commission President Hattoy, it is also certain that deepest condolences should be conveyed to his family and friends during this time of their sorrow. Surely his input and observations will be missed.

 

Link at:

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Mar06/0,4670,
ObitHattoy,00.html

 

 

Caveat Emptor:

     Professor Phyllis Chesler writes at timesonline.com about her experiences as a Western-raised wife to a traditionally-raised Afghani Muslim who returned to his homeland, and it seems that Western Culture comes out the better in the comparison of the two cultures.

 

     More importantly, her article is an effective indictment of the kind of multicultural relativism that runs rampant among certain sectors of the nation's institutions. Surely hell hath no fury like a woman scourged....

 

Link at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/
guest_contributors/article1480090.ece

 

 

J'accuse!:

     Anyone with serious doubts about the efficacy of European socialism needs only to read an un-attributed column at dailymail.co.uk concerning an armed mugging in a Northwest London suburb.

 

     The writer, a self-professed liberal journalist, admits that his liberal instincts have "...died..." after his daughter was robbed and stabbed by a teenaged assailant described by the victim as having "...a Jamaican accent...".

 

     Much of the reason for this loss of faith has to do with not only the increasing incidences of crime in an otherwise upper-class neighborhood, but with the failure of police and National Health personnel in the performance of what one could call their duty.

It is clear from the article that the journalist-cum-concerned-parent was not happy with a bleeding child having to endure more than a 3 hour wait in the public hospital, and an attitude from a local deputy constable that borders on the apathetic. (At a minimum, the article is cautionary tale as to the desirability of universal health care, as well as a political ad in favor of establishing the prerogatives of self-defense.).

 

     The importance of this article cannot be understated. In a recent discussion with a group of graduate students, a British subject challenged the need for gun ownership in the States as a kind of affront to law enforcement. Despite a polite riposte as to a lack of desire for a police state among Americans, and that even the best of practical response times in this modern era leaves the victim with having to deal with the assailant for as long as a 3-rounder in Las Vegas, the differences in viewpoint over the rights of citizenship and liberty were perhaps to large to bridge.

 

    Perhaps then it is going to take more incidents like what the author describes to change the mentalities of liberals in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. For it is only when reality bites (or stabs, or clubs, or knifes, or.....) that people are forced to subject their dearest-held hypotheses to a rigorous review. Given the American Experience, such methods are surely equivalent to doing things the "hard way". Hopefully the lesson will be learned well before there is much more "collateral damage".

 

Link at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?
in_article_id=440318&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490

 

 

While They Are At It....:

     Steve Geissinger writes at insidebayarea.com about efforts by State Senator Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) to expand California's "lemon law", considered by many to be the toughest in the country.

 

     But while Senator Corbett is hard at work protecting consumers from the deficiencies of automobile manufacturing, perhaps she could also work on extending lemon law protections to other segments of the California economy. Some of these could include:

 

    The Legislature- After seeing the work product from that Romper

                                Room known as the State Capitol (Aptly

                                named, because the verb romper in Spanish

                                means "to break"), voters should get their

                                money back.

 

    Bureaucracy- When the tail wags the dog, surely that is as sour

                            a lemon as it can get.

 

    The Media  - If lemon laws applied to movies, television, and

                           the music business, perhaps then such gems

                           as "Inconvenient Truth", "The View", and the

                           Dixie Chicks would not find the light of day.

 

    LA City Council- If they ban transfat, then where are all the

                                 little biodiesel makers going to get the

                                 used vegetable oil they need to help

                                 wean us off of foreign oil and clean the

                                 air?

 

    News Briefs will gladly accept additional segment suggestions not mentioned above, and forward them State Senator Corbett as content permits.

 

Link at:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/
localnews/ci_5373348

 

 

 

Respectfully,